Quince Streusel Cake

When the golden autumn season sets in and quinces give off their wonderful scent, it’s time for a true classic: the quince streusel tray bake. The slightly tart, fragrant fruits develop their full flavour when cooked and go wonderfully well with a sweet, tender yeast dough and buttery, nutty streusel. This classic quince tray bake is ideal for cosy coffee breaks, family gatherings or simply as a sweet treat to keep on hand throughout the week. Quick to make, easy to prepare and a real eye-catcher on any cake plate. If you don’t have quince paste for the filling, quince marmalade or quince sauce would make an effective alternative. In that case, leave out the lemon juice and water from the list of ingredients.

Quince Filling	Dough	Streusel
300 g Quince paste, homemade or storebought 30 ml Lemon juice 30 ml Water	300 g White spelt flour (Dinkel #630) 1 pinch Sea salt 12 g Fresh yeast 120 ml Lukewarm milk 60 g Unsalted butter, softened 45 g Raw sugar 1 Egg	100 g White spelt flour (Dinkel #630) 50 g Walnuts meal 50 g Raw sugar 75 g Unsalted butter, softened

For the dough, mix the spelt flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the centre, crumble the fresh yeast into it and stir in 3 tablespoon of milk. Dust with a little spelt flour from the edge, cover and leave to rise for 15 minutes in a warm, draught-free place. Then add the butter, raw sugar, the remaining milk and the egg, and knead everything into a smooth dough. Cover and leave to rise for a further 45-60 minutes.
For the quince filling, stir quince paste, lemon juice and water over low heat until smooth. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 26-28cm square springform pan with baking paper.
To make the streusel topping, mix the spelt flour with the walnut meal and raw sugar, then mix in the butter. Rub between the palms of your hands to form a crumble topping.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to the size of a baking tray and line the bottom of baking pan. Spread with prepared quince filling and top with streusel.
Bake in the middle of hot oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove the quince tray bake from the oven, leave to cool, then slice and enjoy.